On the face of it Rachel Reeves’s first Budget (30 October 2024) focused on raising money from higher employer national insurance contributions, fiddling with Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax, and pissing off Jeremy Clarkson.
But just below the surface – in the accompanying Treasury documents – there are some interesting hints of things to come, including for sole trader digital record-keeping.
READ MORE >Posted on 02 November 2024
Last week I wrote a blog post outlining a few things which the new Labour goverment looked likely to change.
The one I missed was pension reform.
READ MORE >Posted on 17 July 2024
For nearly 20 years I’ve been helping people to understand how tax works as part of my Finance for Freelances workshops.
The income tax quiz and the tax bathtub graphic are always the highlights!
David’s famous income tax bathtub © 2024
This is not just for fun. If you understand the tax system you will be much less anxious about it.
And most people have never been told how their tax bill is calculated. They think it’s complicated, and it really isn’t.
READ MORE >Posted on 12 July 2024
I’ve been training freelancers for so long now that I can remember being freelance under a previous Labour government!
So does a change of governing party make a difference to self-employed people? Well – yes, if my experience is anything to go by.
It’s been fun looking back over nearly 20 years and finding a blog post explaining Gordon Brown’s tax plans. It feels like a different universe.
READ MORE >Posted on 12 July 2024
The process of registering as a sole trader (i.e. becoming self-employed), is simple in theory.
Officially you’re setting up a type of one-person business. But there’s not much bureaucracy as you are a person and a business at the same time. There are no big legal issues to deal with.
Having said this, the registration pages have changed a little bit, which can be confusing in practice.
READ MORE >Posted on 04 June 2024
Everywhere I look these days someone is telling me to check my National Insurance record.
I’ve discovered why…
READ MORE >Posted on 20 May 2024
One of the smaller announcements by Jeremy Hunt in his budget announcement (6 March 2024) was that the VAT threshold is to be raised by £5,000.
It is £90,000 per year from 1st April 2024.
This refers to the threshold of 12-monthly turnover at which a business, including sole traders, must become VAT registered. If they don’t register at that point they attract a penalty charge.
Posted on 08 March 2024
Figures below were correct as of 8 March 2024
More changes to National Insurance (NI) were announced by the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Wednesday (6 March 2024).
As it happens, I was training at Channel 4 that day, so we were able to look at how NI was at the beginning of the day, and after lunch compare it to the announced changes.
READ MORE >Posted on 08 March 2024
It was Jeremy Hunt’s turn in the spotlight on Tuesday 22 November 2023.
As Chancellor he was making an autumn statement about upcoming changes, including to some taxes.
The most significant change is to national insurance contributions, which are a kind of tax for working people.
READ MORE >Posted on 24 November 2023
Anyone who’s been on one of my courses will know that I have collected together a dozen ‘help sheets’ on different topics that are useful for freelancers.
READ MORE >Posted on 03 November 2023
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